{"id":7956,"date":"2012-11-12T16:34:35","date_gmt":"2012-11-12T16:34:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=7956"},"modified":"2020-05-07T12:42:36","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T16:42:36","slug":"super-thin-membranes-used-in-lab-on-a-chip-diagnostic-devices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/super-thin-membranes-used-in-lab-on-a-chip-diagnostic-devices\/","title":{"rendered":"Diagnostic Devices to Feature Super-Thin Filters"},"content":{"rendered":"
NSF Grant to Support University-Business Partnership<\/em><\/p>\n Nano-porous silicon membranes developed at the University of Rochester’s Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences will soon be used to manufacture portable devices that can analyze DNA in remote settings.<\/p>\n A $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation will fund a partnership among Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering James McGrath, SiMPore, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Integrated Nanotechnologies (INT) to fabricate the devices.<\/p>\n A key component will be filters made of the super-thin silicon membranes. The filters being used today are sponge-like and about 1,000 times thicker than the nanomembranes.<\/p>\n “The thicker the membrane, the less efficiently they work as a filter,” said McGrath, who helped invent the super-thin membranes. “Our membranes are one-molecule thick with tiny holes capable of quickly separating particles close in size.”<\/p>\n
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(Photo by SiMPore Inc.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n